Tim and Vicky, our hosts at Chalet Joseph, have had a life-changing few months. Both working as lawyers in London (he for a music corporation, she for Reuters), they gave up their jobs, got married, had a honeymoon in Africa, then arrived in the French Alps to work as chalet maids, cooking and cleaning. "We've never done anything like it, but it seemed the time was right for a change," she told me when I stayed with them in Morzine just before Christmas.

In fact there's an air of change throughout the Alps this winter. For a start, Tim and Vicky aren't alone – in Morzine the seasonal workers had morphed from the usual spotty teenagers into articulate professionals on recession-prompted sabbaticals. But economic hard times have also led to a shake-up among the ski companies. Industry figures suggest there was a 13% slump in the number of Britons going skiing last winter, despite good deals and great snow.

Worse, with income in pounds but outgoings in euros, the ski companies were left struggling to make money on those who did travel. By autumn, several had gone bust, including Indigo Lodges, Ski All America and Descent International, the most glamorous chalet company of them all. (Even the Duke of York was out of pocket – he'd booked a chalet in Klosters with Descent for later this month.) The big firms reacted by slashing their portfolios of chalets and hotels for this winter, hoping cutting supply would let them sustain prices and profitability. Crystal, Thomson and First Choice (all part of the TUI holiday group) dropped 40% of their chalets and pulled out of 14 resorts altogether, while Kuoni has stopped operating in Italy, Austria and France.

For the small, young ski companies, though, the news wasn't all bad. Over the past decade, demand for chalets in popular resorts has far exceeded supply, forcing the up the rents charged by their owners. The rare arrival of a new chalet would lead to a bidding war among established operators. Small, start-up firms couldn't get a look-in, and the same players kept a stranglehold on the accommodation in many resorts. Having secured the chalets, some operators seemed to feel the hard bit was over, and simply waited for the guests to stump up ever-increasing prices for what was often indifferent service.

Now, with many bigger and longer-established firms pulling out of chalets and resorts, the small independents are at last getting the opportunity to grow, taking on new properties and finding innovative ways to make sure they are filled despite the economic gloom.

As soon as you walk into Chalet Joseph, one of three chalets in Morzine run by Rude Chalets, it's clear this isn't your average ski resort billet. As you might have guessed from the name, Rude is a young, funky company, and the decor matches its image. In the lounge there's table football, a big television, walkie-talkies recharging ready for guests to use, a guitar, a DVD library, a computer, and a vast sofa covered in cushions in the shape of the logo of Burton, the US snowboard brand. In fact Burton's branding is everywhere – on the artwork, the doorstops, the barometer on the wall, even the Christmas tree lights, thanks to a sponsorship deal that also sees Rude Chalets designated a Burton Test Centre, with the latest boards on hand for guests to try.

Rude was set up in 2004 by husband-and-wife team Chris and Helen Lavender. Both were snowboard bums who didn't want to go back to mundane jobs in Britain. (They met in Meribel when Helen was living in a caravan and knocked on Chris's door to ask to use his shower.) But they didn't just move to Alps for the lifestyle; they have drawn on their backgrounds in marketing and IT to set up an unusual company. As well as the sponsorship deal with Burton, they have deals with Red Bull and Xbox, so guests have an endless free supply of the energy drink and a gaming console in every room.

They try to make guests feel part of a "community" – sending them handwritten postcards, inviting them to a pre-season party at a hip east London club, and running special girls-only weeks and snowboard test weekends. And while most small chalet firms throw a few bedroom photos together and call it a brochure, Rude's latest was produced by no less than Kessel Kramer, the cutting-edge Dutch branding agency that usually does campaigns for the likes of Diesel. The result is that in six years Rude has grown from one to six properties, and the latest, Chalet Chapelle, is a luxurious 10-bedroom affair with huge lounge, spiral staircase, hot tub and sauna.

"It's the kind of place that would have been totally out of our price range before," says Chris. "But this year chalet owners are having to drop prices and offer better properties."

In previous years Chalet Chapelle might have gone to a luxury company charging people £1,200 a week, but Rude is offering it for as little as £369. In February half term a stay will cost just £679, with breakfast and dinner, wine all day and airport transfers. "It seems that for years chalet companies were only competing on the type of soap they offered. We think there's a whole lot more you can add," says Chris.

Morzine seems a hotspot for this independent chalet company, perhaps because property prices are lower here than elsewhere, perhaps because Geneva, with endless budget flights from the UK, is only an hour away. It's a charming place – not chocolate box pretty, but a real market town, with a hardware shop, baker and bookseller on the high street, instead of the rows of designer skiwear shops you find in many resorts. The resort is part of the Portes du Soleil ski area, which straddling Swiss border south of Lake Geneva and connects 12 villages with 194 lifts and 650km of piste. Its detractors complain that it's a bit low, and lacks really steep technical skiing, but it's so vast that there's a huge variety of terrain, and the villages and mountain restaurants have far more character than in many other big French ski areas.

Snowboarding remains huge here, and Avoriaz, a purpose-built resort uphill from Morzine, boasts a massive freestyle park and the Stash, an "eco-friendly" park, full of jumps, rails and obstacles built from natural wood. The British Snowboard Team are basing themselves in Morzine this winter, with another innovative young British chalet company, TG Ski.

TG was set up five years ago by two British friends in their twenties, with a £5,000 loan from the Prince's Trust. For the past couple of years TG has operated two upmarket chalets (hot tubs for the evening, hot chocolate delivered to your bedside each morning and so on) but this year it has branched out with a credit-crunch product, TG Lite. It took over a 17-bedroom Morzine hotel called the Miramar and now runs it as a sort of cross between a chalet and a hostel. Gone are any frills – you get a towel, bed linen and bar of soap, but you have to make up your own bed – but there's a cool vibe, slouchy sofas and TV, plus a "crash room" with pool table where parties are planned. Best of all is the price – from £175 a week in a quad room, £250 in a double, including breakfast but nothing else. (Dinner is optional and £10 a head.)

Now both TG and Rude, and many others like them, are hatching ambitious expansion plans. Chris and Helen Lavender want to open the first Rude Hotel, and are eying the Austrian resort of Mayrhofen as a possible location, while TG wants to expand its bargain basement brand in resorts that appeal to hardcore skiers, there for the snow, not the hot tub. The chalet revolution may be only just beginning.